Friday, January 13, 2012

Blogging from the Bus

I'm writing today's blog from the comforts of our bus, as DMBC Dunkerque travel from Dunkerque to the Alp town of Voiron. We play Voiron Saturday night, but since it's a 900 kilometer (500+ miles) drive, we left early Friday morning hopefully allowing our legs to be of better use during the game.

An hour after stopping for lunch at an AutoGrill (the first one I've been to since frequenting them on road trips in Italy), I decided it was as good a time as any to get to blogging. I finished the Chelsea Handler book (don't judge) that I've been reading on and off since August (eh...I'm obviously not much of a reader, but I'm trying to do better!), and you can only look out onto the French countryside for so long without getting bored.

Even though I've been up since 5:30am (jet lag is still rearing its ugly head), sleep is nowhere to be found. For whatever reason, I've never been one for napping. My mom tells me I stopped napping as a two year old, so obviously it's never been something I did very well. I wish I could nap, but my body just won't let me. It's a valuable skill most professional basketball players master early in their careers. For one, it's important to take some rest in between training sessions (lots of time in Europe, you have two practices a day throughout the season). And secondly, most players use napping as a way to quickly pass the hours of free time we have on a daily basis.

So somewhere southeast of Paris, here I am.

My view from the floor of the bus!

This time around we don't have a 'sleeper bus' (which might also be contributing to my inability to sleep while en route), so my teammates and I are desperately trying to find ways to entertain ourselves for the 11-12 hour bus ride. I did bring my sleeping bag along (actually my friend V's sleeping bag she lent me for the season) and put it on the floor. Hopefully being able to stretch my legs out and lay down will help my back not be all out-of-whack when we get to Voiron.

I've listened to some music, a Jillian Michaels' Podcast from late last year about sugar and artificial sweeteners, and finished reading my highly-educational book. I rented the movie, The Warrior, from iTunes that I'll either watch later on, or save for the return trip Saturday night. I'll also put in some thought to my resolutions and goals for the year/next couple of months that I wrote about earlier in the week. We have four or five more hours on the bus to go, so that's how I'll be spending it (maybe with a couple glances out the window here and there).

My first week back in France has gone by fairly quickly, and been relatively smooth.

I spent all day Sunday losing the battle with jet lag, and slept most of the afternoon. The most difficult thing about traveling to Europe from the States, is that when you finally touch down, it's the morning. So you have the whole day that you need to stay awake for. Unless you're on vacation or working, where you have sightseeing, or have something scheduled to keep you busy, staying awake is a difficult thing to do. So I didn't do a very good job following my own advice of not sleeping during the day when you're trying to re-adjust to a new time zone.

A look out from our hotel. Not bad, huh?

We resumed our regular week of practice on Monday afternoon. It was good to see my teammates, and get started with the second half of the season. We have at least 13 more games left to play together, so hopefully we can pick up where we left off (four straight wins) before we went our separate ways for the Holidays.

Unfortunately, I've come up with another annoying little injury along the way (this is where you all tell me I'm getting old, isn't it?). My Achilles tendon started giving me trouble while I was home, so I'm working to get that under control. I'm hoping this will be the last I talk about it, as we seem to have the problem figured out. Now I just need it to heal up!

It's always a difficult process getting back into the swing of things after being home for the Holidays. But the hardest week is the first, and that has almost passed. So it's all down hill from here!

The French Alps!

I'm going to get to those goals and resolutions now! I'll let you know Monday how our game versus Voiron goes! Have a great weekend, and who ya got in the NFL playoffs?!?!?

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About Me

Native Oregonian. Lover of all things Northwest -- from the beautiful scenery, to the Blazers, Timbers and Thorns, Nike, and local food spots.

CU Buff for life. Attended & graduated from the University of Colorado (Psychology degree). Go Buffs!

10 year professional basketball veteran -- now retired (2 seasons in Italy, Portugal, Poland, Bosnia, 2 seasons in Sweden, Germany, & lastly, 2 seasons in France). Basketball shaped me into the person I am today -- the things I learned on (& off) the court have been invaluable learning experiences and character builders.

Thinker and learner -- and striving to maximize life's potential!

Blogger about my unique experiences, travels and passions. Love hearing feedback -- positive and negative!
Occasionally a blogger, as an 'international perspective', for SLAM Magazine Online. If you want more basketball-specific topics, that's where to find it!